File photo The Bluffton girls golf team won the SCHSL Class AAA title by 12 strokes in October.

File photo Sophomore pitcher Courtney Smith was named to the SCHSL Class AAA all-state team this spring.

The football team started Bluffton High’s athletic year by blasting one opponent after another, then rolled to a Lower State championship and runner-up finish in SCHSL Class AAA.

Turned out, the eighth-year school was just getting started.

Bluffton athletes brought home a slew of state and Region 7-AAA awards during the just-completed school year, leading to the Bobcats’ best finish ever in the South Carolina Athletic Directors Cup standings. The program placed fifth among 48 Class AAA schools in the rankings, which are compiled by the South Carolina Athletic Administrators Association.

“We’re really establishing ourselves and finding an athletic identity,” said Ken Cribb, who will enter his third season as football coach this fall. “We’ve got a lot of kids that play multiple sports now, and a coaching staff that is very team-oriented.”

The other AD Cup winners were Wando (Class AAAA), Bishop England (AA) and Christ Church (A).

Cribb’s team was one of seven to win region titles for Bluffton this year, along with volleyball, girls golf, boys basketball, wrestling, softball and boys tennis.

Girls golf secured Bluffton’s only Class AAA championship, winning the state tournament by 12 strokes for its second title in three years.

Athletic director Dave Adams said the girls golf program, which joined the volleyball and cross country teams in winning the school’s first few state titles, helped establish Bluffton as an athletic force in the early years.

“When those teams started getting in the state limelight, I think that made our other sports want to be competitive,” Adams said.

It didn’t take long, as Bluffton became a fixture in the Directors Cup rankings after a 17th-place finish in its first year. Since then, the Bobcats have missed the top 10 only once.

“We were new to this this thing, and we got thrown into varsity competition the very first year,” said Adams, who was the school’s first football coach. “A lot of new schools play (junior varsity) the first couple years, but we were playing varsity in AAA right off bat.”

Adams said the football team’s hot start, decimating the regular-season competition and reaching the state championship game, set the tone for the rest of the year.

“There’s no doubt that has a trickle-down effect,” he said. “Our basketball success came off that excitement, with a lot of the same kids jumping on that court after the season ended. Everybody wants to share in that success, too.”

Cribb attributed much of the recent success to the school’s new weight room, as well as students’ willingness to play more than one sport. He said that most of the football players also play basketball, baseball and run track.

“I’d say, of about the top 30 guys who contribute on Friday night, most all of them play two sports and a lot play three,” Cribb said.